Paracusia
A scream from outside her room woke Zoey up. The room flickered as she heard the thud of a body hitting the floor. She was holding an envelope in her hand, which she swiftly discarded on the bedside table. Her phone screen had lit up with a new message. Good morning, Zoey. She ignored it, instead rushing to the corridor. Another scream, a clattering of a pipe, and Zoey was outside her room. Unnamed and Glitch lay on the floor unconscious, but their attacker was nowhere to be seen. She quickly checked their pulse—good, still alive—and quickly raised two sand golems. “You,” she pointed at one, “protect these two. And you, go wake the others.” They nodded and Zoey ran out the exit of the pocket dimension. She was going to find whoever did this and make them pay. ... As seemed to be typical for air travel, just as Piper was getting into the episode playing on the in-flight entertainment system the screen cleared. The American girl held back an under-the-breath curse. The ‘fasten seatbelt’ icon showed up on screen and an announcement came over the plane’s intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, as we start our descent, please ensure all electronic devices are switched off. Thank you.” The audio quality was severely degraded since the last announcement about half an hour ago, though only for the first few seconds. When the intercom clicked off, the episode she was watching started up again from the beginning. With no fast-forward option available she decided to pick up where it had left off later and relax for the rest of the flight. ... About 20 minutes later the Boeing 777 touched down in London. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to London Heathrow Airport. Local time is 4:17 AM and the outside temperature is 6 degrees celsius.” The audio quality began to degrade again, as though there were a whisper track playing. “On behalf of British Airways, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Have a nice day.” The intercom clicked off, but the whisper track lingered for about a minute. Well, at least it wasn’t just her screen with the tech problems today. ... Airport security was dull as ever, and Piper was practically on autopilot until the baggage reclaim. She was standing back, amusing herself with the inevitable herd mentality of the rest of the passengers, crowding as close to the carousel as possible. And then she heard it again. This time there was no announcement, it was just the whispers. They didn’t seem to be coming from any particular direction, and they were so quiet that she could barely tell they were voices at all. Then, just as soon as they had appeared they were gone. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, so she just attributed it to the fact that she was tired after a long flight. Half an hour later the Heathrow Express was pulling in to Paddington Station. She had picked up a disposable SIM card from a vending machine at the airport, and had just turned her phone back on after swapping it in. Within seconds of the phone being on it beeped the familiar new message alert. It was an unknown number. She’s here. Piper starred in bemusement at the notification on the screen, then put the phone away. The train ground to a halt. She gathered her bags and got off. They must recycle phone numbers a lot in this country, she figured. But curiosity got the better of her. She sat down and responded. Who is this? How do you have this number? Almost instantly there was a response. Who I am is not important, Piper. She almost dropped the phone. Who are you? How do you know me? She’s here. She is here and you must find her. Who’s here? Zoey is here in London. Follow the voices. They will lead you to her. She was still in shock that anybody who knew her name was able to contact her so quickly on a brand new phone number, but at the mention of Zoey’s name Piper began to understand. Her parents had told her stories about a person by that name for as long as she could remember. The whispering voices started again, louder and clearer than before. They were almost musical. She still could not figure out any words, but she was at least able to get a strange sense of location from them. “Fine. Fine! I’ll do what you want. Just get out of my head.” ... Zoey returned to the base dismayed. She had been quick enough that she was able to give chase all the way to street level. However, once she was above the surface the assailant was nowhere to be seen. Unnamed and Glitch had regained consciousness, and Claire was attending to them, but the golems had by now crumbled. Claire looked up expectantly. “They got away,” said Zoey before slipping back into her room. “What did they look like?” Claire had followed Zoey into her room. “Didn’t get much of a chance to look. All I really got to see was the back of her. She was fast. It’s not important at the moment. We can check the CCTV later. How are they doing?” “They’re just stunned. Neither seems to remember the attack. Whoever she was, she had every opportunity to kill them, but chose instead to simply knock them out. She must have been here for some other reason.” “Thanks. Go, take care of them.” Claire nodded and left the room. Zoey looked at the bedside table, where the envelope she had woken up with sat. “Yeah. Some other reason.” At that moment, her phone lit up again, demanding attention from it’s owner. She checked the message on screen. It was from an unknown number. Good morning, Zoey. She almost ignored it, but she could count on one hand the people she knew who had this number, and one of those had disappeared mere hours ago. Hi… erm, whoever you are. She’s here. Not Dave then. As weird as the man with the Martian Pants was, if he was trying to contact her, he would be more direct. Look, I’ve had enough crazy for one day. Who is this? Who I am is not important. Oh fuck off. She’s here. Piper is here and you must find her. She did not care anymore. Whoever this stranger was, they could wait. She threw the phone on the bed and turned her attention to the envelope. It was ornate, sealed with a blue wax seal she immediately recognised as being Lowe Holdings. Her uncle’s company. Her company. Ripping it open, she saw that it was even handwritten on her uncle’s monogrammed stationery. Whoever this intruder was, she was certainly one for detail. “Dearest Zoey”, the letter began. Not exactly her uncle’s style, but the intruder had certainly gone to a lot of effort to forge and deliver it, so she figured she would at least read it. The letter started with the usual “if you’re reading this then I’m dead” bullshit Zoey was tired of from every movie where this sort of thing happened. It went on to say that she had family here alive. “Two you have met, your daughters from a future forsaken...” Zoey was still reeling from that bombshell when Helen had revealed it earlier that evening. Interesting timing, but it proved nothing. “...and my grandchild from a past unfulfilled. Her name is Piper.” Because of course it is. Today clearly was not crazy enough already. She almost stopped reading at that point, but her curiosity got the better of her. It continued to talk about the others in the group, and how she should make peace with them, that she didn’t have long left… again, nothing all that meaningful and certainly nothing that proved it was from who it claimed. “You will never get another chance, little rose petal.” And she froze. She stared at those three words for what seemed like an eternity. Nobody but her uncle had ever called her that. Her eyes started to tear up a little, and she went back and read the letter again sans the cynicism. After a while, she picked up her phone again. Okay. Where do I find her? ... From the mezzanine overlooking her penthouse apartment’s main living area, Zoey watched the CCTV feed Glitch had hooked up on a tablet. She was here, just as the stranger said she would be. A young woman, not much older than Zoey, was in one of the building’s external glass lifts on her way to the top. She had long black hair, and was wearing a denim jacket and a Stetson. Zoey thought the hat was a bit much. She couldn’t see the face from this angle though. The lift reached the top floor and Zoey pressed a button on the tablet, opening the door and letting the woman into the penthouse. She passed by a head-height hidden camera in the wall, and Zoey paused the feed to get a look at the woman’s face. She looked familiar, as Helen’s face had looked strangely familiar the first time she saw her. Yes, there was certainly a family resemblance to this girl, but it was the eyes that stood out the most. His eyes. Of that, Zoey had no doubt. “So you gonna tell me what these whispers in my head are all about?” Zoey looked up from the tablet screen and down to the living area below, where the woman now stood looking up at her. “They’ll fade now you’ve come here.” she said, putting down the tablet and walking down the stairs to the lower floor. “We designed the signal so that any Empowered in the city could hear it and head to a safe place. Somewhere we could determine if they were to be trusted without compromising our headquarters.” “Safe place?” asked the woman, motioning her head in the direction of the one window that had been hastily patched up after Monolith had needed a quick exit. “Well, mostly safe. We were only attacked by a dragon the one time.” The woman wasn’t even phased. “I guess you must be Piper?” Piper tipped her hat and smiled. “Howdy, Zoey.”